


Lover

by misslmf



Series: x reddie fics x [4]
Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: A little bit of fluff, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fix-It of Sorts, Fluff and Angst, IT Chapter Two Spoilers, M/M, Rated T for Trashmouth, Reddie, Songfic, Spoilers for Stephen King's IT, Stephen King - Freeform, kind of, reddie is canon fight me, the kissing bridge scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-24 18:46:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20912357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misslmf/pseuds/misslmf
Summary: When Richie sees Eddie for the first time in 27 years, it stirs up some memories of the two of them on a certain bridge one summer’s day——there is homophobic language used by a certain awful character so be careful and reader discretion is advised. also mature language/just general swear wordsthis does also contain some spoilers from It Chapter 2 so do be careful of that too





	Lover

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like the timeline of how this goes is kind of confusing so I thought I’ll clear it up just in case: 
> 
> In the first part, they are adults, then the second part they are children, and then in the third and final part, they are adults again.
> 
> ———
> 
> The lyrics quoted in the oneshot are from Taylor Swift’s new song, Lover (it’s a beautiful song, check it out if you haven’t)

_have i known 20 seconds or 20 years?_

Richie didn't want to be there. He wasn't sure why he'd ever agreed to that blood oath back in 1958. Going back to Derry to face It again was his worst nightmare. So was seeing everyone again. Sure, his radio show was successful but it wasn't anything compared to what Bill had done for himself. He was writing books and making movies.And Ben had designed and created the new BBC building in London. Richie didn't even know what the others had been doing but it was probably better than what he was doing.

The library looked exactly the way it had done 27 years ago. The lights were shining through the gaps in the curtains and when he neared the doors he could hear laughter inside. He clenched and uncleanched his fists over and over again and took some deep breaths. As he walked in he fiddled with the glasses that he hated. What kind of luck was it that as soon as the call came from Mike that his contacts would stop working?

"What's up fuckfaces?" He shouted as he walked in, using his humour the only way he knew how - hiding his emotions. "Guess who's back?"

There was silence. The six people sitting around the table suddenly fell silent. They all looked at him and Richie looked back. For a second he thought that maybe he was in the wrong library. But all the people sitting round the table... They looked like absolute strangers yet exactly the same.

One of the men stood up and walked to Richie. Richie couldn't help but give a shit-eating grin. He grabbed the man's cheeks and pinched them.

"Hey Eds." He cooed. "How've you been?"

Eddie Kaspbrak slapped Richie's hand away and rolled his eyes, smiling all the same.

"Don't call me Eds." He said simply. "It's good to see you Trashmouth."

Richie laughed and grabbed Eddie by the shoulder and hugged him tight. He breathed in deeply and the only thing he smelt was Eddie. He couldn't describe what it was but it was just so distinctly... Eds.

"Beep beep Richie." Someone said from in front of them. Richie heard the scraping of a chair being pushed out and someone walking towards them. He crack an eye open and saw good old Stuttering Bill Denbrough

Richie and Eddie separated and Bill gave Richie a hug.

"St-still got that st-stuh-stutter?" Richie gave a poor impression of Bill's voice which earned his a smack on the back of the head.

"I'll have you know I don't you little sh-shit." Bill scowled at looked at Richie as if it was his fault. "Although it's definitely been getting worse since we've gotten together again."

"That's funny, my contacts stopped working the moment I got the call and had to put my old glasses back on again." Richie thought out loud.

"Let's not dwell on that right now Richie." A woman's voice rang out- Beverly Marsh. "It's good to see you."

Richie looked around, no longer nervous that he would feel inferior. As long as the Losers were together, they were all just as shit us each other. But someone was missing. Everyone else was there too, all the people he’d been friends with for all those years back when they were young; Ben Hanscom, Mike Hanlon, Stanley Uris-

_Wait_. He thought to himself, doing a metal headcount. _There are only five other people here. So that means,_

"Hey, where's Stan?" Richie asked, all of his memories flooding back. "He was always so annoyingly punctual."

Everyone looked solemn at once and Richie frowned.

"No one told you?" Mike said quietly.

"Hey guys come on, where's the funeral?" Richie tried to joke. He just got slapped by Eddie. As he rubbed his arm he looked around, asking for an explanation.

"Stan..." Bev started slowly.

"Stan comitted s-su-sui-" Bill couldn't get the word out but Richie could fill in the gaps.

"Stan's dead?" He said quietly. Richie felt Eddie's hand slip into his; he didn't need to look to know that it was him. "I can't believe it."

"I guess it was too much." Ben said quietly with a shrug.

"I can't believe it." Richie said again. He didn't know what else there was to say.

"Me neither. We all took it a bit hard. How couldn't we?" Bev said.

"Well... at least he won't have to go through the shit we're probably about to go through." Richie tried to say with a bit more positivety. It didn't seem to work very well.

"Let’s just... Let’s just think about something else." Mike started towards the table again. "Come on, it's what Stan would have wanted."

Everyone else nodded and walked away. Apart from Richie and Eddie, whose hands were still joined.

"Hey, Richie." Eddie whispered. "Can we talk?"

Richie felt his face heat up and was instantly embarrased. He tried his best to keep the blush under control.

"Yeah, yeah. Of course man." Richie separated their hands and walked outside, hearing Eddie following him from behind. The weather was cold and when they breathed out you could see it like smoke from a cigarette. Not that Eddie would ever smoke, the little hypochondriac.

Richie pushed his hands far down into his pockets to warm his hands and rocked back and forth on his heels. He never was good at sitting still. Eddie stood in front of him, in the same position. Richie wanted to go forward and hug him again. He wanted to go back to when they were kids and when they could just spend time together the way the used to.

"I feel like I need to tell you something." Eddie said after a few moments. He stepped closer and locked eye contact with him, something that they used to avoid doing when they were younger. Richie's heart skipped a beat.

"Yeah, you can tell me anything Eds." Richie said softly, barely aware that the nickname slipped out; it was like muscle memory.

"Don't call me Eds." Eddie said, also as if on reflex. "Come on, just let me say what I need to say." Richie smiled and nodded. Eddie took a deep breath and looked down at their feet, smiling a little as he bumped them together. But it quickly went away. "I'm married."

Richie froze and everything went silent. He could say Eddie's lips moving but he couldn't understand anything. It was all just as blurry as his vision would be if he took off his glasses. Eddie was married. To a woman. After their summers together. He was married. He belonged to someone else, somebody new. Unavailable. Off limits. It hurt Richie to think like that. But how was that not expected? He could never see Eddie stuck on the same person from years ago. Especially since they never technically remembered each other.

But despite that fact, Richie never married. All of his relationships had failed. Why? Because... because there had always been that small feeling in his mind that someone was missing. That he was meant to be with someone else. And that he just had to wait for them to come back. It wasn’t the best feeling in the world.

So how could he want Eddie to have gone through the same shitty feelings that Richie had, just so they could be together again?

"Richie?" Eddie grabbed Richie's face and made him look him in the eyes. "Are you even listening?"

"No." Richie couldn't stop the truth coming out. Eddie rolled his eyes and groaned.

"Come on Richie, don't be like that. You know why we could never work." Eddie let the hand that was on Richie's face stroke down his cheek softly. "As much as we wanted to. The world just isn't ready for a relationship like ours. Maybe one day if it is..." His voiced trailed off.

Richie couldn't even find any words. It felt like he was tumbling down and down and down into memories that he couldn't control.

☾ ☾ ☾

_i’ve loved you three summers now honey, but i want ‘em all_

"Come on Eddie, I really need to show you something!" Richie laughed as he cycled faster than Eddie, who was gasping.

"Wait up douchebag, I need my inhaler!" Eddie was breathing heavily as he pedalled as hard as he could to try and keep up with Richie. It was quite difficult to cycle when he only had one arm that was available to be used and not in a wrist cast (he'd barely hurt it this time but his mother still harassed the hospital until he got one). When they finally got to where they were going, Eddie was going to punch Richie into the next decade if it was just some dumb rock or something.

They found themselves at a bridge that was covered in padlocks and some of the wood had some choice letters carved into them. Richie threw his bike on the ground and ran to the top of the bridge, waving Eddie over wildly. Eddie dropped his bike too and stumbled up to meet him.

"This better be worth it." He sighed. "Where are we?"

"This is one of the cheesiest places in all of Derry." Richie was grinning as he looked around. "Which is exactly why we're here!"

"Yeah okay, but what is here?" Eddie walked towards the edge and looked at some of the padlocks. They were little notes scratched into some of them and some of the were heart shaped.

"This called the Kissing Bridge." Richie said shyly, smiling a little. Eddie had never seen him looking like that before. It was... adorable.

"The Kissing Bridge? What are we doing here?" Eddie asked. Richie pulled out a switch blade and Eddie took some steps back. "Okay, who the fuck decided it was a good idea to give you a knife?"

Richie rolled his eyes and instead just walked to one of the planks of wood that lined the bridge. He stuck out his tongue as he concentrated on what he was scratching into the wood. Eddie crouched down next to him and watched closely at what he was scratching. As he was working, Eddie took some time to look at Richie. His black hair had grown so much during the few years since... the incidents... and it was now thick and curly. He was wearing his glasses at that point but he had started wearing contact lenses. Eddie had to admit that he preferred Richie with glasses; every time Eddie pointed that out, Richie got all cute and blushed. And ever since everything happened Eddie just felt... different. Like something had changed between him and Richie. He seemed so much more open. Eddie liked the change though. He'd never felt so close to Richie and he wasn't complaining about that.

"Almost done!" Richie exclamied. Eddie looked at his work and saw,

** _R +_ **

But before Richie could finish, someone suddenly shouted their names. Both boys' heads whipped up and Eddie fell back onto his butt. It was Henry Bowers, looming over them like a huge beast with his two friends behind him. Eddie started breathing heavily and he reached into his back pocket for his inhaler but as soon as he got it out Henry kicked it out of his hands. It rattled as it skid across the wood and fell off into the river under the bridge. Eddie yelled as it fell and when he looked next to him Richie wasn't there. He looked around desperately for him and found Richie standing in front of him, squaring with Henry and glaring.

"Don't you dare kick my friend jackass!" He shouted trying to sound as intimidating as he could. "You go into the river and get that for him right now!"

Eddie was taken aback by Richie's courage. He'd never seen anything like that from him before. It felt nice to be defended, especially by Richie. Still, standing up to Bowers completely alone was pretty dumb.

"Richie shut up!" Eddie hissed, tugging on his trouser leg. "I'll just go down at get it. It's not big deal."

"Yes it is Eddie! I've had enough of this guy screwing us over-"

Then Richie was cut off when Bowers punched him right in the face. Richie fell to the ground and the lenses of his glasses smashed. His head hit the wood hard and when the punch had landed on his nose started bleeding.

"Richie!" Eddie yelled. There was no response. Eddie saw red. He pointed up at Bowers and stood up. "You son of a bi-"

Bowers picked up Eddie by the collar and held him up so his feet were dangling a few inches off the ground. He grasped onto Bowers' arm but the one with the wrist cast was too weak and couldn't hold on. That in particular took his attention.

"Ah, little pussy's got a cast on again." He laughed, shaking Eddie a little. "I thought I sorted that out last time Kaspbrak."

Eddie fell to the ground and watched helplessly as Bowers pulled out a black marker. Eddie has a flashback as the same thing that happened to him years ago happened all over again. Bowers yanked Eddie's arm up harshly and scribbled one word in it in thick black writing.

** _LOSER_ **

"Have fun with your faggot friend Eddie." Bowers sung as he and his friends walked around laughing. Eddie was breathing heavily and looked at the cast, that all too familiar word written on it. He winced.

"Ugh, Eddie?" Richie croaked from the floor next to Eddie. He touched his nose and actually laughed a little bit. "Nice. Bill's gonna love this story."

"You are _so_ stupid Richie Tozier!" Eddie huffed, shuffling over to him, smacking him repeatedly on the arm. "You can't do stuff like that to people like Henry Bowers."

“Aw, but wasn’t I your knight in shining armour Eds?" Richie said pinching his cheeks.

"Don't call me Eds!" Eddie laughed as he pushed Richie away. "I suppose you were for half of it, before you got knocked out by that neanderthal over there." Eddie looked at his cast sadly. "Although the worst of it was done."

"Hey, let me see that." Richie gently pulled Eddie's arm over and looked at the writing. He too frowned. Eddie could see that Richie was about to say something. He went to protest but was cut short in surprise when Richie pulled out a red marker. "I don't like what he wrote there. I'm gonna fix it for you."

"Oh God Richie please don't write something inappropriate." Eddie groaned, rubbing his brow with the hand that Richie wasn't holding softly. Despite not entirely trusting what Richie would write, he didn't try and stop him. 

"Shut your eyes and shut your mouth." Richie said loudly. After only a second or so, he'd finally scribbled on enough. "There! Fixed it!"

Eddie looked at it and smiled when he read it. Over the S in deep red marker, Richie had scrawled on a big V. 

"See!" Richie was grinning wildly and Eddie returned it. "It says-"

"Lover." Eddie finished. He looked up at Richie and he almost stopped breathing. Richie looked breath-taking. His eyes were shining as he too looked down at the cast. After a moment of Eddie staring up at Richie, Richie looked down at Eddie and they locked eyes. Eddie couldn't stop his eyes falling to his lips. 

He coughed loudly and looked away, shaking his head.

"Um, thanks, Richie." Eddie muttered, standing up and pulling Richie up too. He stroked his fingers across his cheeks, brushing away some of the dried blood. "Lucky you've stopped bleeding. I don't think your parents would ever trust me again."

Richie stood up as well and looked at his feet. He looked so upset and Eddie felt instantly guilty. 

"Yeah, guess I'll just have to clean up before I get back." Richie scratched the back of his neck nervously and chuckled. The two started towards their bikes when Richie froze, making Eddie jump. "Your inhaler!"

"Oh shoot, you're right." Eddie cursed under his breath. "I should probably go get it. You head back and I'll see you tomorrow."

"Are you kidding me?" Richie grabbed onto Eddie's hand and Eddie sucked in a sharp breath. "I'm obviously going down with you. No way I'm letting you go down there alone. You know how I feel about sewers. And I'm willing to bet you feel exactly the same way." Richie elbowed him and Eddie squirmed away.

"Okay fine. If it makes you feel better you can come down with me." Eddie sighed and they walked down together. While they walked, Richie fiddled with his broke glasses and scratched the crack in the glass. It was terribly endearing. 

They hopped down the steps and reached the stream that was flowing fast and full of, 

"Grey water." Eddie huffed. "I'm not going in that." He took some steps back and shook his head. "I'll just get a new one from the pharmacist, let's go ho-"

"YOWZA!" Richie yelled and jumped right into the water, splashing it everywhere. Eddie rushed backwards to avoid the water, swearing loudly. 

"Jesus Richie!" He shouted. "What's wrong with you?" When there was no answer, Eddie got nervous. Just as Richie had said, he wasn't a big fan of sewers. There were a few weird noises. "Richie?" Silence. "RICHIE?!"

"Found it!" Richie jumped out of the water right in front of Eddie, soaking his completely. 

"RICHIE TOZIER!" Eddie screamed. He was dripping in Derry piss and shit. "I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU JUST DID THAT!" Richie looked guilty for once and smiled sheepishly. 

"Sorry Eds." Richie said quietly. "I really didn't mean to. I just wanted to get you your aspirator back."

"I know you didn't mean to." Eddie sighed, trying to shake off the drips. He stopped still when Richie stepped closer and pushed some of Eddie’s wet hair away from his forehead.

“I know you’ll call me silly but...” Richie hesitated and he tensed up before relaxing again. “Even with piss and shit covering you, you’ve never looked better.”

Eddie just looked at Richie Tozier, this amazing boy standing in front of him. He too was dripping water the same water that covered Eddie. His glasses were askew on his face and he had this silly little smile on his face. Eddie thought he was absolutely adorable.

“Somehow, that’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me.” Eddie whispered, getting closer to Richie until their feet were touching. Richie smiled and hit Eddie’s shoes with his eyes, striping them with mud. Eddie laughed a little and did the same. While they were still doing this, they looked at each other. Richie’s tiny blush on his cheeks tore Eddie apart and he couldn’t help himself anymore.

_It’s different yes_, Eddie thought to himself. _But you can’t stop you feelings. And can feeling this way... really be such... a bad thing? _

Without warning, Eddie touched Richie’s face gently and pressed his own lips onto Richie’s. The other boy stiffened completely and Eddie wondered if he made a mistake. But when Richie sighed and held onto Eddie’s wrist, he decided it was one of the best idea he’d ever had. He could feel him smiling through the kiss and Eddie thought his heart was going to explode into a million pieces. He forgot about all of the dirt both he and Richie were covered in; everything was just the two of them, kissing under that bridge, the water flowing in between their legs, making quiet sounds. But Eddie couldn’t hear a thing. Just fireworks going off in his brain and Richie’s breaths that tickled his cheeks. Eventually they had to separate and when they did, Eddie swore that he had never seen anything more beautiful than post-kiss Richie Tozier. They both cleared their throats somewhat awkwardly but they were still happy nonetheless. Eddie silently slipped his hand into Richie’s and they walked back towards their bikes, getting on them and pedalling away, still making no noise, the only one being the squeaking of the chains spinning on their bikes. Eddie’s smile dropped slightly for a second.

“Richie, you didn’t finish the carving.”

“It’s alright.” Richie said, shrugging. “We don’t need our initials on a piece of wood to remember this day.”

Eddie smiles slowly and felt his face heat up. His eyes wandered back down to the word written on the cast.

“No. No we don’t.”

☾ ☾ ☾

_can we always be this close, forever and ever_

Richie’s arms were heavy and his sides, swinging back and forth as he walked towards a familiar bridge that he hadn’t seen in 27 years. Flashes of memories appeared in his mind every time he took a step.

A switch blade making scratching noises as it carved into wood, an aspirator tumbling over the edge and falling into the river below, a cast with one word scribbled on it, a splash of dirty water covering two boys. 

A kiss.

And every time he took a step, more and more of him fell apart.

It felt like centuries had passed before he even got to the top of that bridge. The Kissing Bridge.

“One of the cheesiest places in all of Derry.” He whispered to himself, daring to smile.

Richie pulled out the very same blade that he had all those years ago that felt so much long than they actually were. He ran his finger down the edge and willed himself not to cry as he thought back. Slowly but surely, the raised it to the wood and finished a carving that he had started before being interrupted.

** _R + E_ **

Richie Tozier smiled once it was finally complete. He looked to his left where someone should have been sitting next to him. Cracking jokes and telling him not to call him Eds. Holding his hands gently and pressing soft kisses to his lips.

It was all too much. Richie wanted to run and hide. Hide from the cruel world that took away the only thing he’d every truly loved. He shook his head as tears started to well in his eyes. But when he looked up, he smiled at the letters carved into the wood. Eternal and forever.

“Eddie Kaspbrak.” He whispered, stroking the wood. “My Eds, my beautiful Eds.

My lover.”

**Author's Note:**

> so, i’ve never even seen the It movies so i’m sorry if there are any inaccuracies, particularly in the beginning.however, do remember that this is a scene fix it so i understand that this whole kissing bridge scene isn’t actually in the movie or books. just desperately trying to cover all my bases haha  
i have however, read the plots for both of the movies, watched clips of each character and am reading the book as we speak so i feel allowed to express my adoration for Richie and Eddie.  
and despite my lack of extensive knowledge, i have still managed to cry at any reddie edit i see, and the scene with Richie at the kissing bridge at the end :’) 
> 
> besides all of that, i hope you enjoyed reading this and you all liked it! this is the first time i’ve written anything other than malec for a while so i hope everyone’s okay with a change :)
> 
> thanks for reading! xoxo


End file.
